Foreword

In this book, we have endeavoured to demonstrate that the crisis
in African agriculture affects virtually the whole continent, even if it is true
that some countries are managing better than others. In the attempt to
understand the causes of this crisis which is affecting not only agriculture but
the whole society and economy, we have felt it necessary to go back to
precolonial societies to see if their forms of organization and level of
development could prevent the victory of the aggression mounted by the
capitalist mode of production.

Capitalism having succeeded in ensuring its domination, we have
attempted to grasp the forms of exploitation which developed during that era,
and their consequences for the subject peoples. Facts and observation show
clearly that there is no possibility of survival in the framework of the present
world system. Is the alternative, which can materialize only in the form of a
delinking from the system, possible today and on what conditions?

These are the issues we raised, without being sure of providing
definitive conclusions. Societies need to be reorganized on the basis of
transformations of class relations. Such a prospect is not foreseeable in the
immediate future but it is the condition for the alternatives that can liberate
the African peoples, make them masters of their fate and liberate their creative
initiative.